Welcome to My Worlds: A Bipolar Christian Tells All

Today is the last day you’ll hear from me unless you subscribe to my blog to get the lastest book reviews and to find out what books I’m giving away each week. That url for that site is http://edgyinspirationalauthor.blogspot.com . So… on to the topic for today. Yeah, I’m a bookaholic. I need help. Honestly, it’s even worse when it’s autographed books. I have an addiction to them. At last count I had over 160 autographed books…and that was 6 months ago.
 
Some people collect ceramic frogs or spoons. I collect books. Tons of them. I’ve given away older ones and books I’ve already read (just gave away 20 this past month) and I STILL have a ton. Like my bookshelves are literally buckling under the weight. Just a few months ago we bought two more book cases so I could stack my existing stash neatly. Those are now double shelved!  

But I love to read and I HATE to say no. In fact for every two books I turn down (for review) I accept a few others. I need to say no to everyone, but can’t seem to do it. So I try to read and keep the books moving out as fast as I can, but it’s a true challenge. If you’ve been reading my blog all week you will see why it’s amazing I get even one book a month read. Did I mention I have book proposals out there all over the ABA and CBA? If I sell any more of my own books…then that means more editing and writing on my end, which means I read less. I would love to read full-time, but it’s just not doable.  

Meanwhile I collect books. Lots and lots of them. Some days I do little happy dances when the mailbox is empty. The postal service must wonder how I manage to get SO many packages. And my hubby, well, he just rolls his eyes and tells me I could read all day every day until I die and still not finish all the books I have on my shelf. I just checked and I’m up to over 600 books on my TBR pile. About 400 I already owned and 200+ were sent to me. I’m not counting the 100+ Heartsongs and Love Inspireds that are numerous, but older copies. At any rate, I still love it when a book I’ve been wanting to read shows up in the mail and I’ll exclaim, “Yay! I’ve been wanting to read this book!” Hubby will roll his eyes and say, “You say that about every book you get.” That’s not true, but then again I may be in denial, because after all…I am a bookaholic! 
 
It’s been fun blogging at you. Peace! 

Michelle here again. I’ve always been a bit of a marketing whiz. Ever since I was a kid I’d sold the most cookies for camp, the most newspaper subscriptions, the most greeting cards, etc. If there was a contest I’d take the bull by the horns, sell like crazy, and win it…every time! Seriously. I guess I’m competitive, eh?  

Well, now that I need to sell my debut novel and market the online magazine I’ve had to pull out all of those former skills and dust them off. I guess I’m doing okay because things are coming together very well and the word is getting out there even better than expected. I keep getting all of these great marketing ideas and they are working out very well, but like KFC’s special recipe, I ain’t sharing them all with you or it would spoil the fun.

I ‘ve even been granted the title of Marketing Director for Sheaf House (the new small press I’m published with) and Marketing Director for Christian Fiction Online Magazine. Crazy, huh? But it’s true. It just comes naturally for me. The funny thing is that you would think it would be a huge advantage for publishers to want to take me on as an author this day in age when authors have to work so hard to market themselves. You think they’d see that I’m not a wallflower who is meek and can write great books but not tell a soul about them. Well, that’s just not me. I guess Sheaf House benefits most from this. Sheaf House has majorly talented authors (more you don’t even know about yet) and the whole world is going to know about them very soon…once the books start selling like hotcakes.  

Even in these tough economic times it’s still possible to succeed in a sluggish market. What you need is enthusiastic people to represent the product who genuinely believe in it and want to tell the world what they are missing out on if they let the opportunity pass them by. That’s me. The manic marketer. I told you it describes me perfectly. What I’ve discovered about myself is that if I’m doing something in my area of giftedness and God is behind it, then whatever I’m doing gives me energy. I’m telling you, Sheaf House it’s the best thing to hit the edgy Christian fiction lovers market in a long time, and you’re all going to see that very soon. I am also very excited (and proud) of the online magazine. It’s going to be so hot people are going to slap their foreheads and ask themselves why they hadn’t thought of it first. Trust me, you don’t want to miss it! That’s it for today. Whew! I even tired myself out describing that aspect of my life. Peace!

Michelle here for the third day in a row. Are you tired of me guest blogging yet, or just tired after reading about my insane life? It’s all self-inflicted, I assure you.  

Anyway, I’m sharing today about my magazine venture. This mogul I’m referring to is not the snow bumps skiers pass over in the Olympics ski runs. This mogul word is a noun and defined it means a person of influence and wealth. Scrap the wealth part, but the influence definitely had to be there or I could never have pulled something this huge (like CFOM) off. Trust me there. With God’s help and plenty of ideas that He’d given me, I took off with a brainstorm of ideas for columns. In less than four weeks time I’d lined up almost 100 columnists and booked columns well into 2009. Now how did that happen?  

I believe God set me up to be in the right position at the right time to recruit all of the talent needed for the mag. Since I’ve been a member of ACFW for going on 5 years now and I’ve been a Board member for 18 months, I’ve come in contact with a lot of people. But even more than that are the contacts I’ve made with authors and publishers because of my blog and book reviews. So I had a vast amount of people I could tap into and influence to get enthused about the online magazine.    

I’m proud to say that I’ve not only received and edited over 30 columns for the July issue but have even processed some columns for August, Sept, Oct. and Nov. already. Tired yet? I couldn’t do any of this without a team of talented people behind me who want to promote Christian fiction as much as I do. And with Bonnie Calhoun setting up the site and Erin Brown doing technical edits, we’re operating like a smooth flowing machine…with no glitches or bumps so far. That’s how you know when something you are doing is a God-ordained thing.  So why did He choose me for this huge job? I don’t know. Maybe because I was willing and had a vision for Christian fiction. I’ve been promoting it for years now. I know that when you are doing something you love it gives you energy. This magazine is like my cup of coffee. It keeps my excitement and energy level up because this mag is going to be so great! The quality is amazing. And Kelly Mortimer(whose blog I’m blogging on) is one of our regular columnists. She’s got talent. You’ll see what I mean when you read her snarky take on the industry. So check us out at http://www.christianfictiononlinemagazine.com beginning July 1, 2008!

Michelle Sutton back again. Guess I survived yesterday. I knew I would. In fact I am reading like crazy right now. When I get the muse I edit. I’ve written so many edgy books that I’m not hurting for new material. I just need to make the existing ones sparkle for when that big publisher discovers me and wants to buy everything I’ve ever written. Yeah, huh? Well, I can dream.

  In the meanwhile I found a publisher, Sheaf House, who was not only willing to take on my edgy work, but told me I could spice it up even more. Huh? All righty, I said. And I did. So my first book, It’s Not About Me, really isn’t about me. I’m nothing like the main character. Good, you say? Does that mean you’ll now read it? Hehehe. Okay, enough of the self-deprecating barbs.

Seriously, the story is about a beautiful young woman (told you there was no resemblance)! She has everything going for her and in one hour her entire life is changed forever. NO, it’s not a sexual assault. That would be too cliche. What? Seriously, I didn’t want to do something predictable to her. So I came up with something else that will grab by the throat. I guess it’s worked so far because all of my endorsers read the book in one or two sittings. Some said they never read a book straight through.

Suffice to say I do believe It’s Not About Me will hold your attention. I’m not going to tip you off about any of the juicy stuff, but for romance lovers, what is more exciting that two good looking men competing for the same woman? Make them brothers and it’s even more fun because brothers can beat on each other and usually no one is arrested. Okay, no more tidbits for you. If you like an action-packed, sizzling romance you’ll like my book. If you enjoy books with virtually no romance and one kiss at the end, find something else to read. My story will offend you.

That’s it for now. Peace!

With so many things going on right now it’s a miracle I maintain my sanity at all. Hi, I’m Michelle Sutton and I wear a bizillion hats. Okay, that is a slight exaggeration, but I still wear a lot of them. Being a book reviewer is a biggie right now. It seems like the more people who read my reviews and like them, the more requests I get. Seems like everyone has now decided I should read every book that is out there, too. I can’t do it. I just do the best I can.  

The fact that I am quickly approaching a deadline for the first issue of the Christian Fiction Online Magazine doesn’t help. Since I’m Editor in Chief, I have over 30 columns and columnists to keep track of. Getting the ideas for the columns was the easy part. Collecting them all, making sure they are edited and in good shape AND scraping together the columnists bios and pics (and ads) has almost put me over the edge. Not that I’m complaining. It’s just a nightmare in regards to volume of E-mails, charts, tracking systems, etc. But I’m holding on.  

Before you decide that I am truly certifiable I should mention I also work 40 hours per week for the government. Yeah, that just about tips the scale for me, too. I’ve always been told I’m an overachiever who is amazing at juggling a hundred balls at once. I suppose that’s true, huh?  

Did I mention I have my first book coming out in September and I am concurrently marketing it along with all of the other things I’m doing right now? Are you tired yet? I am. But I am also fulfilled knowing that what I am doing has meaning and value and the Lord won’t waste my efforts. Until tomorrow. Peace!